To say that the life cycle of a software or product development project will not be complete without some unforeseen changes isn’t an overstatement. Change is something to be expected in every project and may be the one and only constant variable.

It may occur as minds, budgets and even market places change. How exactly should a good project manager handle change? And how Microsoft Project comes into play?

Cost Estimation

Estimating the cost and the time to make the change are the two top things to do when managing change.

The first – estimating cost – is quite straight forward, where you have an SME (Subject Matter Expertise) estimate of how the new work will cost. You must identify which existing planned work to be eliminated then subtract it from the cost of the new work.

Work Scheduling

What is harder is estimating the change to the schedule, but it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. You can take advantage of Microsoft Project to turn what is an overly complex analysis into a manageable one, where you will be able to calculate the impact of the change would do on the schedule. With the software, simply create a new baseline for the project. Alternatively, you can rename the file of the project then update it to the new baseline.

Do note that any change you make to the schedule and WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) will affect the project’s completion date. Unless the prior deleted activities have no subsequent activities dependent on them.

Afterward, you will need to validate the new completion date. Verify as well for any dependencies and make sure that they have been defined. Use the program’s "Change Highlight" feature to help you out. The feature will help you highlight any successor activities which start and completion dates have been changed by a predecessor date’s change.

Manage resource usage

Another important thing to check is whether or not you have sufficient existing resources to accommodate the proposed change. Again, MS Project can help you out. With the program’s Report feature, simply select "Resource Usage" to view what the work hours per week is for each resource. Should you find that a resource is doing more than the allowed number of hours, some load leveling may be required.

Though you have everything set, it’s never a bad idea to look for different approaches of doing the work that allows you to deliver the changed project faster. However, take extra careful if you are thinking of pulling this kind of trigger. As long as you thoroughly identify any possible risks as well as the confident that you can manage them – go for it.

Microsoft Project has been designed to support practically all the best industry practices. Why not take up a training course on MS Project to help you be the best Project Manager you can be.